I really loved this book. A big draw for me was the way that gender was presented and explored, particularly the way that the society we are in informs how we view our own gender as well as other people's. Both Zhu and Ouyang have very complicated feelings about how they want to be perceived and it influences the way they treat other people as well as themselves and it was just really well done in my opinion. Those conflicted, difficult to define feelings really resonated with me personally and I loved reading it.
I think I was mostly bored? The first chapter just went so fucking hard but the author keeps the audience at a distance the entire story while all I wanted was to dive deeper. Deeper into these characters, deeper into the war scenes, deeper into the court politics. I feel like we brush over so many otherwise interesting moments that end up not feeling impactful. I did enjoy the destiny commentary and how that interplays with the story. If the finale goes heavier into the fantasy aspect, I might pick it up but even with that ending, I was still feeling pretty meh about it all.
Nearly got this as a Christmas present for someone for whom a certain scene you mentioned would not have been appropriate. However the way you describe the setting I think I would enjoy it.
That was pretty much my favorite last year. I really enjoyed the characters and their dynamics - the main couple, the eunuch and his friend (all the tragic stuff), the eunuch and the father, the main character and her best friends... I also feel that the MC was a very well done dark-grey character. I was a bit miffed in Poppy War, because I felt that the MC was flipp-flopping a lot and I didn't have that here. There was consistency and a bit of progression.
Yes. Definitely similar to Poppy War but less dark. And the way in which TikTok is talking about this book all wrong...whew. if I see one more person talking about how it's a "sapphic fantasy" and I'm like "sure....that's like 15% of this" And I was kinda back and forth on it. I didn't love it but also didn't hate it. It was a 3.75 for me. Might read book 2.
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I really loved this book. A big draw for me was the way that gender was presented and explored, particularly the way that the society we are in informs how we view our own gender as well as other people's. Both Zhu and Ouyang have very complicated feelings about how they want to be perceived and it influences the way they treat other people as well as themselves and it was just really well done in my opinion. Those conflicted, difficult to define feelings really resonated with me personally and I loved reading it.
I think I was mostly bored? The first chapter just went so fucking hard but the author keeps the audience at a distance the entire story while all I wanted was to dive deeper. Deeper into these characters, deeper into the war scenes, deeper into the court politics. I feel like we brush over so many otherwise interesting moments that end up not feeling impactful.
I did enjoy the destiny commentary and how that interplays with the story. If the finale goes heavier into the fantasy aspect, I might pick it up but even with that ending, I was still feeling pretty meh about it all.
I’m a bit over halfway through the sequel, and so far the fantasy has stayed about the same.
Nearly got this as a Christmas present for someone for whom a certain scene you mentioned would not have been appropriate. However the way you describe the setting I think I would enjoy it.
That was pretty much my favorite last year. I really enjoyed the characters and their dynamics - the main couple, the eunuch and his friend (all the tragic stuff), the eunuch and the father, the main character and her best friends... I also feel that the MC was a very well done dark-grey character. I was a bit miffed in Poppy War, because I felt that the MC was flipp-flopping a lot and I didn't have that here. There was consistency and a bit of progression.
Yes. Definitely similar to Poppy War but less dark. And the way in which TikTok is talking about this book all wrong...whew. if I see one more person talking about how it's a "sapphic fantasy" and I'm like "sure....that's like 15% of this"
And I was kinda back and forth on it. I didn't love it but also didn't hate it. It was a 3.75 for me. Might read book 2.
One of my favourite top books of the year. I absolutely LOVED this one, and it isn't something I would usually read. Highly recommend it.
Good review!👍👍👍
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